Tag Archives: Canal Walk

Try saying that five times fast…..I assume you just did. Well that was fun.

I did the Canal Walk in Richmond today for the first time with my family, and I have to say it was an interesting day. The Canal Walk begins in downtown Richmond and goes for about 1.25 miles. Then you turn around in order to get back to your car. So not too long and an easy distance to stroll. There’s several places where you can stop and read about all the historical stuff that happened in Richmond. It was pretty cool.

Overall, I would say I had a really good time today. But, several things went…well, wrong. They just went wrong. It’s kinda fun to laugh about now though.

So first, it’s hot as the dickens outside in Richmond. The high today was 95 degrees. 95. Eww. And my family and I went walking around 11ish. It was really hot. But there was a little shade here and there and we were walking very slowly so it wasn’t completely terrible.

And then there was a detour, which I think was due to some nearby construction. And instead of walking along the actual Canal Walk, my family and I ended up just walking through downtown Richmond. That wasn’t too bad but when you come to walk along the canal, you want to walk along the canal. But we didn’t really realize that we were on a detour and there was no other way to go so we were frustrated that we had somehow gotten lost.

We ended the first part of the walk with lunch at Bottom’s Up. It was sooooo good. I love Bottom’s Up, which has fabulous pizza. If you live in RVA and have never been, go. Now. And only order one slice of pizza, if you order by the slice. They are giant slices of pizza. At least two normal slices, probably more like three. And they are loaded up with toppings. Where can you go wrong?

Lunch was a nice break. We got to sit in air-conditioning and hydrate ourselves and eat some food and it was really nice. Plus, like I’ve said, the food was really good.

After lunch, we set off on the second part of the walk: back to our car. This part of the walk took us less time, since we weren’t stopping and reading as much. It was still pretty warm but there was more cloud coverage so it seemed better. While the clouds were nice to block from the sun, they did give us a little rain shower. It didn’t last too long and it wasn’t hard so it was more a nuisance than anything.

But while it was raining, we were also trying to find the part of the Canal Walk where we had gone on the detour before. And we thought we had found it! But we hadn’t. And it was raining. Once again, perfect conditions. (That was sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell)

The walk after that was wonderful. It was cooler than before and the sun was still behind some clouds. There were only a few other people walking so we didn’t feel all alone but we also didn’t have to deal with people. And we were comfortably full from lunch.

Like I said, it was overall a very pleasant experience. I would recommend going in the fall or spring, where it would be cooler. Or maybe in the evening, when some of the lights are on and I imagine it would be very pretty. And if you’re a native Richmonder and have never been, you should go.